1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle steering wheel having input units.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, vehicle steering wheels have been provided with various kinds of buttons for setting various operations such as a traveling mode setting, a car navigation setting, an audio playback and stop setting, an audio sound level setting, an air conditioner setting.
For example, in an onboard device operation system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-175783, an operation unit is provided on spokes of a steering wheel. The system allows a driver to perform a blind operation by displaying the driver's selected operation near the driver's line of sight when driving.
In JP-A No. 2007-153181, a ring-like steering wheel is provided with a palm-rest unit with which the palm of a driver's hand is in contact and is provided with an operation unit with which onboard devices can be operated with the driver's palm being in contact with the palm-rest unit.
JP-A No. 2009-161025 discloses a configuration in which a protrusion is provided on an upper part of a spoke of a steering wheel and a switch is provided on the protrusion in order to allow the operation of the switch provided on the steering wheel without gripping the switch.
However, the configuration disclosed in the above Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications cannot realize a safe and sufficiently satisfactory operability from the viewpoint of a response to a driver's acceleration operation. In particular, it is preferable in a sports car to allow a driver to perform the acceleration operation while holding the steering wheel and without the driver having to move ones hand off the steering wheel.